Your eyes meet over a park bench. You’re both sweating, panting and stretching out after a hard session, and your slightly bleary gaze lingers for what might be considered a fraction too long – if it wasn’t for the fact that it’s being returned by a pair of equally weary eyes. “Do you run here often?” you ask. “No, but I will do now…” It might sound like a cliché, but many couples do meet over a shared passion for running rather than a water cooler at work, and running can provide like-minded people with an introductory service that’s far more effective and long-lasting than a dating app.
“I met Rob at a free social running group put on by Runners Need in north London,” says Ashley Scott of her now husband. “I was new to London – and England – and had just come off of being an athlete at the University of Tulsa. I was searching for groups in the area so I could run with people and hopefully make a few friends. I then realized he trained with the same club as me, but in the Men’s A group. I hadn’t spotted him previously because I was always in too much oxygen debt for much to register during the track sessions! But from there we started going to the pub after club sessions and went on the occasional weekend run and still saw each other almost weekly at Run Camden.”
The rest is history, but running is still a major part of the couple’s life together, with all the pros – and, it has to be said, cons – that brings. “Our schedules are similar and I’m not seen as weird for being late or unable to attend something due to running,” she says. “It’s also nice to have someone who understands the pressures of competition. “The cons are that we get virtually zero weekends of just lying around the house drinking tea. Saturday is either a race or a morning session and Sunday is a 9am long run with a group of friends, and we hardly ever get a full weekend at home due to races and such.” “One of the biggest plus points is being able to support each other”, Ashley says.“I sometimes get fed up with running in general. I competed at a relatively high level and chasing previous times sometimes becomes too much. These are the times I need Rob the most. Running is something I can’t live without, but I can’t say I always enjoy it.”
Another thing running can do is lead you to share new experiences. “We’ve pretty much always run when on holiday,” says Lucy Greswell of her and partner Chris McCann. “We’ve had great runs in New York’s Central Park, Paris and Barcelona. Once we went with some club friends on a day trip to Belfast – we landed early,went to a gym, got changed and did a morning run around the city, followed by a dip in the pool. Then we did a bit of sightseeing and ended up in The Crown Bar for a Guinness before heading home in the afternoon. It was fun, and not something we would have done without the running!”
There is just one slight drawback for them, that you should perhaps be aware of if you’re about to head off to your local club in search of romance: “I do miss being able to go out for a nice, steady off-road run together now that we have kids. The logistics of fitting in both of us training is difficult – impossible really – with two little ones, so ‘serious’ training is off the cards for a few years, I think.”
AGE IS NO BARRIER
If the thought of juggling running shoes with nappies fills you with dread, kids don’t have to come into the equation. “We met at our athletics club, Nuneaton Harriers, but didn’t get together straight away,” says Eleanor Fowler, 38, whose husband Eric, 52, has grown-up children. “It was only when we happened to be running together and chatting on a club training night that we discovered we got on well. It was an ideal way to get to know each other and after several runs together we discovered that there was a spark between us and, more importantly, that we were both single. We didn’t do much traditional dating – our ‘dates’ were mostly runs on Eric’s favourite routes. “We’ve both been competitive runners for most of our lives and it really helped us to connect – knowing that the other shares that same understanding of the desire to race. We’re very fortunate that we’re able to train together as we run at a similar pace. When we’re both race-fit it can get a bit competitive between us and we certainly push each other hard. This year we’ll be doing the London Marathon again, so it will be interesting to see who comes out on top.
“We get asked if we run on holiday – in fact we’ve always taken our kit, even on honeymoon,” she adds. “Most often we take a holiday tacked on to a race fixture. Even when we’re away for a ‘rest’ we’ll find somewhere to run – in Italy last summer we decided to run up Mount Vesuvius, which drew some strange looks from the locals. “There are a lot of advantages to being in a relationship with a runner, such as being able to devote time to training without feeling guilty. Also, because we train together, it means we get to spend more time as a couple. We’re able to
advise each other on training sessions and gee each other up if one of us is lacking motivation. We both share that passion for running and think nothing of going out for a long run on Christmas Day.”
And even for established couples, it’s never too late to start running together. “I met my wife Linda at Exeter University in 1973, and we didn’t start running together for at least 32 years,” says Keith Whitehead, 62, from Solihull. “I’d run a bit before that, but Linda only on a treadmill. In the mid-2000s we struck a bargain that she would run outdoors with me if I would do yoga with her. “We both belong to Knowle & Dorridge Running Club and to Solihull Triathlon Club. For KDRC we sometimes run in the same club training session and we’ve often done long weekly training runs together. We frequently enter the same event, but have only run side-by-side in a race twice, once when I paced her to a half marathon PB at Stratford Raceways. “I retired early in 2007 and really took up my athletic career from that point. Linda still worked part time but in 2011 she finally decided I was having far too much fun so she left work so we could spend more time together.” There’s still time for romance, even in the midst of a busy schedule and after 43 years together.
“Once, as Brueton parkrun run director, on a day that coincided with our wedding anniversary, I surprised Linda during my spell on the microphone before the run with a bunch of flowers. Other – male – runners were concerned that I might have set a precedent!”. “Running couples just understand so much about the other’s passion for running and the problems and compromises it involves,” Keith adds. “Sometimes we train for and compete in the same event and it’s great to share the day – and the travel and the planning – even if we don’t actually run it together.”
We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
